Kingdom Tidings March/April 2004

One often hears the phrase, “end of the world”. Not only many devout Christians but others, too, use these words. To large numbers of people, the end of the world means the destruction of this planet. Total annihilation, overwhelming catastrophe - such words express the thoughts most often associated with the “end of the world”. Because of improper teaching, men have come to fear the end of the world to such a degree that many do not even wish to discuss it. Also, large numbers seek to ignore the “end of the world” by holding to a highly exaggerated "escape teaching" - to such persons, the “end of the world” has no fear because they have taught themselves to believe that their particular type of Christianity affords them a special advance “rescue operation”. They say that the “end of the world” doesn’t concern them because they will already have been removed from this doomed planet anyhow!

It is true that some popularized Bible texts at first glance, may appear to support such teachings. However, when considered in their proper context, they actually reveal the error of these popular religious illusions. As the Apostle Peter has pointed out, the unlearned and the unstable often twist Bible truth, even to their own ruin. (2nd Peter 1:20, 3:16).

Let us see what we can learn about the “end of the world” by considering one of Jesus’ parables which deals with this subject. The parable is found in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. Jesus Christ likens this present world to a field ready for the harvest. In the field (this world) are two kinds of grain. They look very much alike. One kind of grain Jesus calls “the children of the Kingdom.” These are the “good seed” which have been sown by the Son of man Jesus Christ). The other kind of grain is called “tares”. These are the “children of the wicked one”, sown by Satan. Both have grown together in the same field. The “end of the world” is likened to the “harvest time”. The Lord will then send forth His “harvest crew”; these are His angels and it is their task to first gather up the “tares” (the children of devil) and cast them into a “furnace of fire”.

The operation of the angels is similar to that of responsible human farmers. They remove weeds, gather out thorns and thistles, and prune dead branches. They remove all the unfruitful and destructive elements from their crop. It is now ready to be harvested and only that which is good and pure will flow into the harvest bins. With the completion of the harvest, the owner has food to sustain his family, to bring him a profit, and he also has a supply of good seed for the next season.

“THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field... while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.” - (Matthew 13:24-25)

One fact must stand out clearly to all who will study the parable. After the harvest has been completed, the angels do not destroy the field. Jesus declared that the field represents the world. Obviously, then the world will not be destroyed. Instead, having been cleansed of its tares (wicked men), it will be in far better condition than before the harvesting operation. What, then, is to be destroyed, if not the world? The parable clearly states that the angels gathered together the tares. They then removed them from the field and burned them in the fire. From this, it is clear that it is not the world which God will destroy, but wicked men. As a result, far from being destroyed, the world is to be cleansed! Plainly, the teaching that this planet is to be destroyed is not the teaching of the Bible!

Now, let us go a step farther in our study. This entire operation is primarily related to the citizenry of the Kingdom. It has to do with the present system of worldly-society only in the sense that the tares and their influences are corrupting the people destined to demonstrate God’s Kingdom of Heaven on the earth. The tares and those of God’s people who have been contaminated by them are to be removed; they are to be separated from the body of God’s people and then destroyed. This is made clear by the Lord Jesus in the introduction to the parable. He said,

“The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who sowed good seed in his field ...“

(and this is not all) for He concludes His explanation of the parable in these words,

“Then (after the removal of evil men) shall the righteous shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear.” - (Matthew 13:24, 41.43)

This entire parable deals with that Administration of God’s people which the Bible calls the Kingdom of heaven. This Kingdom was in demonstration when Jehovah-God established the children of ]acob (modern Anglo-Saxondom) as a Kingdom at Mount Sinai. The Authority of God became the heartbeat of the nation. The laws, statutes and judgments of God became its constitution. It was indeed the Kingdom of heaven, having received both its true King, ]ehovah, and His holy law directly from heaven. It is this people and this Kingdom with whom the Lord Jesus deals in this parable. It is this people, this Kingdom, over which He will reign when He returns to earth at the close of this age. (Luke 1:33, Acts 1:11; 2:29-30; 3:19-23)

The Lord Jesus refers to Satan as the Prince of this world. In this passage (John 12:31), the word rendered "world" in your English Bible is the Greek word KOSMOS. Its meaning is ORDER, ARRANGEMENT, SYSTEM. The best modem rendering would be SOCIETY or CIVILIZATION. What the Lord Jesus is saying is very simple and direct. It is that Satan is the real ruler of our present civilization.

Just how does Satan exert his authority? How is he able to retain authority over our society? He does it by appealing to our lower natures. There are only two basic drives in man. One is the flesh or self; the other is the Spirit of obedience to God. Another way to express this truth is to say that men either serve themselves or they serve God. It is easy to see how Satan keeps this present world (civilization or system) under his control.

It may be said of God’s people that those who do serve Christ are still captive within the world-system but they are not a part of it. Jesus explains this in John 17:14

“(Father) I have given them Thy Word, and the world (kosmos, i.e., Satan’s system) has hated them, because they are not of the world (the civilization belonging to Satan) even as I (Christ) am not of the world (even as I am not subject to Satan and do not uphold his society)”.

Many people have wondered why Christianity has not triumphed over evil in this present world (society). The answer, at least an important part of it, is that God uses the present world-order as a training ground. The present world does hate the true follower of Christ. There is no doubt about that. And we should not be surprised, because Jesus prophesied this condition. But look at it from another point of view. The opposition of the world provides the very best conditions in which to train Christians. What better way to train them in faith than allow them to be faced with seemingly insurmountable problems? Their love, faith and obedience is best developed when facing the ignorance, opposition and hatred of Satan’s servants who continue to hold the reins of authority in this present civilization!

To complete our study of this parable, we should know that in addition to the Greek word translated world which means SOCIETY or CIVILIZATION there is another word for world which means AGE. This is AION (Greek) which means a very long period of time. An example is the time from creation to Noah’s flood, or the period from the flood to the first coming of Christ. Today, we live at the end of the age which began when Christ was born and will end when He returns again. The passage which we are studying, Matthew 13:38-40, contains the English word WORLD three times. One of these means CIVILIZATION and two of them mean AGE.

Now, I’m going to read ]esus’ explanation of His parable - the one which contains the phrase "END OF THE WORLD". But, instead of using our common English word WORLD, I will use the word which best expresses the original Greek in each case.

“The field is OUR CIVILIZATION; the good seed are the children of the Kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;"

“The enemy that sowed them (the tares) is the devil; the harvest is the END OF THE AGE, and the reapers are the angels,”

“As therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the END OF THIS AGE.” - (Matthew 13:38-40)

It is now clear that it is not the planet earth which is to be destroyed by fire but the tares (wicked men and women) that will be burned; and the "WORLD" that comes to an end is not the planet earth but the "AGE" in which we now live. At the return of Jesus Christ, our present AGE will come to an end; the present wicked SOCIETY will be destroyed and then - in the NEW-AGE - as Jesus declared,

“...shall the righteous SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the Kingdom (THE NEW SOCIAL ORDER) of their Father (God). Who hath ears to hear, let him hear”.

“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish, three days and three nights.” - Jonah 1:17

Jonah had expected to perish in the waters of the Mediterranean, thereby saving Israel, by bringing destruction on Nineveh; but Almighty God had other plans, which could not be frustrated, therefore He sent the fish to swallow his disobedient prophet and thereby save his life.

It is important to note at this point that the fish is not specifically called a whale. In the Old Testament account the Hebrew word denotes a “great fish” whilst the Greek of the New Testament denotes a “sea-monster” and as the largest creature of this type known to the translators of the Authorized Version of the Bible, was the whale, they rendered it as such in their translation. Whatever this sea-creature may or may not have been, the fact is that despite what the Modernists and Higher Critics may say, Jonah survived three days and nights in the belly of the fish, before being cast out alive on dry land. In recent years secular evidence has come forth to substantiate and endorse the Biblical account of human survival in the belly of a great fish or whale.

First of all there is no sdentific reason why a man could not survive such an ordeal. There would be sufficient air of a sort to enable him to breathe, the very air that would be necessary to enable the fish to float. The heat would without doubt be oppressive, but according to experts never more than 106F. Although this is fever heat to a human, it does not need to be fatal. Furthermore the fish could not digest living matter such as Jonah would have been, otherwise it would digest the walls of its own stomach.

In addition to all of this background evidence there is the testimony within the last century of those who were swallowed by whales and survived.

According to Sir Francis Fox and a committee of French scientists including M. de Parville the scientific editor of the “Journal des Debats” of Paris, this was exactly the experience of one, James Bartley in 1891. A whaling ship called the “Star of the East”, was operating in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands, and launched two boats to deal with a big bull cachalot. One of the boats was upset by a blow from the tale of the whale, and James Bartley was swept overboard and disappeared. The whale was subsequently killed and the crew began to dismember it cutting open the body to remove the blubber. They worked all day and part of the following night, and next morning in opening the belly of the whale, James Bartley like Jonah of old was found to be alive, in a state of deep shock, his skin bleached to a deadly whiteness that remained through his life. After his two and a half day ordeal Bartley was in a raving condition, but within three weeks with care and attention he recovered his senses and was able to give an account of his experiences. He recalled moving along a smooth passage, the throat of the whale, and the stifling heat inside its belly. God had preserved his life in order to confirm the truth of the Biblical record.

Sir John Bland-Sutton, also gives us an account of a U.S. whaling vessel which also sent out a smaller boat in pursuit of a cachalot. The boat was broken in two by the whale which swallowed a crew member named Marshall Jenkins. As the whale, subsequently dying of wounds inflicted by the harpoons of the sailors, came up for a last breath of air, in its agony it vomited up Marshall Jenkins alive with the remains of its last meal of cuttlefish. This authentic story was printed in the prestigious British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph of February I 7th 1928.

It is now obvious to all but the most biased student, that the Bible story of Jonah’s experience in the fish, sea-monster or whale, so long scorned by the Modernists as a far-fetched fable, is a perfectly reasonable, accurate and factual account of events.

DOES SONG OF SOLOMON 1:5 TELL US THAT ONE OF SOLOMON’S WIVES WAS A NEGRESS?

“I am black, but comely, 0 ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me; my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyards have I not kept.”

No, this woman was not a Negress. Compare her with “Cinderella”. In verse six she tells us why she was “black” - “because the sun hath looked upon me”. In other words, she had a “healthy tan” which back then was considered to be the mark of a low-class working girl. The word “black” is from the Hebrew word shachowr, which means “dusky or swarthy”.

Notice that verse six explains that she was blackened by the sun, because her brothers made her take care of their vineyards, and she could not take care of her own. I believe this meant that it was her complexion that was darkened.

She is only mentioned once and that is in Luke’s Gospel where we read this description of her:-

"And there was one Anna a prophetess the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser: she was a great age, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the Temple but served God with fastings and prayers, night and day.” - Luke 2:36-37

As to the presence in ]erusalem at this time of a member of one of the Ten Tribes, some might think this refutes the Anglo-Israel message. Far from it, for Anna is that exception which proves the rule. It was necessary in the plan of Almighty God for representatives of both sections of His people to be in the Temple to welcome the baby Jesus. As Simeon was representative of the Judah section, Anna represented the Israel section. We have already pointed out that during times of religious revival in the Southern Kingdom, some Northerners went south, a few may even have stayed. Furthermore when the vast bulk of Ten Tribed Israel were carried into Assyrian captivity, a few stragglers may have fled south escaping the mopping up operations which lasted until 676 B.C. Did not the prophet declare:

“Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof saith the Lord God of Israel.” - Isaiah 17:6

By this we understand that a tiny remnant, a mere handful of Israelites referred to as "the gleaning grapes" and the berries in the furthermost extremities of the tree, would escape the overall mass deportations into Assyrian captivity. This accounts for the presence of Anna a member of the Northern Tribe of Asher being in Jerusalem after Christ’s birth. There with Simeon she awaited her Messiah, so that the little Lord Jesus might be received, praised, worshipped and adored by the representatives of the Two Houses of Israel, between which Bible Prophecy makes such a clear distinction.

The picturesque town of CeIle in Lower Saxony has a population of some 75,000. This number includes 2,650 Turkish nationals, of which 2,300 are Kurds. The latter, being asylum-seekers and alleged “refugees”, live for the greater part on Germany’s generous social assistance system. To the amazement of the towns administration, it has now found that the Kurds, regarded as being destitute, had in fact bought 223 properties valued at DM65-million during recent years. The citizens of Celle are furious. The public prosecutor is now investigating whether the money comes from the drug trade, protection-money rackets, or the traffic in human beings.

In speaking of the United States and Britain as modern Israel, it is necessary to remember certain things in order to avoid confusion.

First of all, the people of Israel were no more divided into tribes, but had, centuries before, passed into the more advanced stage of national organization. It is the natural progress of any progressive people. First, it is the family, then the tribes, then the nation embracing the tribes. We must think of Israel as a nation and a company of nations, no more called Israel, for the best of reasons, but called by the name, above all others, of sons or House of Isaac, or Saxons, with many other branch names.

Secondly, we must remember that they were not the original founders of Israel in the Isles - that is to say, in Britain - but they came in very late in British history, even a thousand years after the House of David had arrived and been established there.

We shall, therefore, approach the subject of the ten tribed House of Israel as being the consideration of a branch of the Israel people which, late in history, arrived in Britain, and added their strength to those who had preceded them.

We begin with the separation of the House of Israel from the House of Judah. Thereafter there were two nations in Palestine of the Israel stock, and their histories are separately recorded, with their separate lines of kings, in the books of Kings and Chronicles. Read them there, and be sure to read them separately.

Thence we find Israel carried captive to Halah, Habor, and the River Gozan. Professor Odlum says of this deportation:

“The distance to which Israel was carried from their own country in about 721 B.C. was not less than seven hundred miles in a north and east direction. The Syrian desert, the River Euphrates, the Mesopotamian region, the Tigris, and three ranges of the Kurdistan mountains intervened between Samaria and the new home of Israel In captivity. In this district were the cities and regions of Halah, Habor, and the River Gozan, which flowed into the Caspian Sea, as it does today. This new home was the high table-lands of Media and Armenia....”

While settled in this district, they aided the Medes and Persians to break the power of their captors, the Assyrians. Afterward Babylon went down before their arms.

From this time they were on their way to their new European home. They found unoccupied territory in the neighbourhood of Ar-Sareth in southeast Europe. Here they occupied the Crimea, and spread up the waterways, passing the watershed and down the waterways to the Baltic and the North Seas.

“The migrating Scythians crossed the Araxes, passed out of Asia, and suddenly appeared in Europe in the sixth century B.C.”

Esdras in the Apocrypha tells us that the Ten Tribes left their exile and moved away across the Euphrates to a place called Arsareth (City or Hill of Sareth) - (II Esdras 13:39-45). To the northwest of the Black Sea is a river called Sareth to this day.

“The Scythians emerged from beyond the Euphrates across the Armenian river Araxes.”

“The fugitive host, starting from upper Media, passed the north end of Lake Uinri into the mountain valleys of the Kurds; here some dropped off, and their children became in after ages the Nestorian Church. These were for thirteen centuries the missionaries of Asia.”

Herodutus says the Persians called the Scythians Sakai, and Sharon Turner identifies these very people as the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. The old Greek writers spoke often of the valor and the undaunted spirit of these Scythians. They say “No nation on earth can match them. They are unconquerable.”

“From ]osephus, the Jewish historian of the first century, we learn that at A.D. 70 the Ten Tribes were outside the Roman Empire. By other means we learn that they were in the south of Russia in immense multitudes, and known as the Scythians of Herodotus.”

The burial places of the Israel people have furnished ample inscriptions to show clearly that the Crimea was a centre of residence for this people for ages, and that from it they spread up through Europe and eastward as far as China.

“The Sacae sprang from people in Media who obtained a vast and glorious empire.”

Ptolemy finds the Saxons in “a race of Scythians called Saki, who came from Media.”

“The Sakai were among the most distinguished people of Scythia who settled in Armenia, and were called Sacae-Sani.”

Prideaux finds, that “the Cimbrians (Kumrii) came from the Black and Caspian Seas, and that with them came the Angli.”

“The Saxons were a Scythian nation, and were called Saca, Sacki, Sach-sen.”

“The word Sacae is fairly and without straining or imagination translated Israelites.”

The Bible (Amos, chapter 7) solemnly takes cognizance of the change of the name of the nation and people from Israel to “the House of Isaac” (Saxons).

Thus we see these people settled about the Crimea and along the rivers of Europe from the sixth century B.C.

Their migrations to the Baltic and North Seas are well told by Du Chaillu, a scholar of England with a French name.

The militant progress of the Goths, GoIli, “Men of God” is well known in the history of Europe. The divisional names of Angles, Jutes, and so on, are duplicated today by the names our race now bears as English, Welsh, Scots, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Anzacs, Americans, and so on.

From the sixth century B.C. to the time of the landing of Hengist and Horsa, these people had been steadily progressing up through Europe, God’s Battle Axe Brigade (see Jeremiah 51: 20). Finally, they came in and occupied the place, which had been made for them in the British Isles by the Roman occupation. Since that time they have been not the least important part of the Israel peoples dwelling in the “appointed place” (the British Isles), and extending to the overseas dominions the strength and energy of their race.

It has been possible only to touch authorities and evidences of the identity of the Anglo-Saxons with ten tribed Israel. But even so, the array of standard authors who make declarations regarding this matter is startling, and it is clear that the scholar who denies an historic basis to the claim of Saxon identity with Israel speaks rather out of his lack of knowledge of standard literature than out of his knowledge of the subject.

The identity of the Saxon and Israel is proven, and we are now put in the responsible position of asking what it means in the way of responsibility under God’s plan for His nation, and through them for the world. With Paul we ask,

“What shall we say then? Hath God cast away His people whom He foreknew? God forbid ... God hath not cast away His people.”

Reprinted from “Destiny Letter” P.O. Box 177 Merrimar, Massachusetts, 01860-0177, U.S.A.

You must visit our new Open-Bible Ministries Online Resource Centre from where you can listen to available talks and download them to your computer in MP3 format or purchase them as audio CDs or even MP3 CDs. We plan to increase the number of talks available from this new Resource Centre over the coming weeks while still maintaining our cassette tape facility for those folk who need this medium.

In the above messages recently added to and available from our Open-Bible Ministries Online Resource Centre, Pastor Alan casts the searchlight of Scripture upon matters of vital importance for us today. You must listen to the series entitled "Jeremiah: From Jerusalem to The Emerald Isle" in which Pastor Alan shows that after the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon, the Prophet Jeremiah escaped from Palestine with his scribe Baruch and the royal princesses, daughters of Zedekiah. The Prophet and his companions made their way ultimately to Ireland where he re-established the Throne of David, in fulfilment of his commission to "build and plant" and at the same time, in so doing, also re-united the Pharez and Zarah sections of the Tribe of Judah. We believe you will be both blessed and encouraged by listening to this and the other topics available.

You need to read:

"The Drunkards of Ephraim"

Pastor Alan Campbell

Price £1.00 UK or $2.00 US (plus postage)

(An excellent series in two parts in which Pastor Campbell examines the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of various books in our Bible and reveals a wealth of truth and doctrine contained in them)

"What's in Store for 2004?"

"Steps To Blessing"

"Jeremiah: From Jerusalem to The Emerald Isle" - (1)

"Jeremiah: From Jerusalem to The Emerald Isle" - (2)

"Jeremiah: From Jerusalem to The Emerald Isle" - (3)

"Jeremiah: From Jerusalem to The Emerald Isle" - (4)

"Jeremiah: From Jerusalem to The Emerald Isle" - (5)

"Jeremiah: From Jerusalem to The Emerald Isle" - (6)

"Jeremiah: From Jerusalem to The Emerald Isle" - (7)

"Overview Of Bible Prophecy"

"Bible 3:16's " - (1) (see series above)

"Bible 3:16's " - (2) (see series above)

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